IT may seem like an obvious thing to say but early pace away from the traps wins dog races.

When trying to work out just how a race may develop you always have to first try and establish which greyhound will lead at the first bend, after that other factors may come into play but to be on either the first or second dog into the back straight generates a high percentage of winners.

With this in mind, I would like this week to give you some insight into some of our fastest dogs over the sectional time part of the race, being the time it takes from the traps to the winning line first time round.

One of my favourites, Liskees Joy, a dog that I have often tipped, came up trumps again last Thursday afternoon when managing a sectional time of 3.59 seconds in her A3 race.

She had been in top grade A1 and Open races as recently as December and I have always advised that A2 wins are always on the cards with her. So A3 was never going to be a problem, the only thing which surprised me was that starting price of 5-1.

You may have missed this payout but there may well be another one to come when she races next time in an A2.

You would imagine that the top-class dogs would possess faster early speed than dogs in lower grades, however this is not always the case.

One of the fastest greyhounds we have here at the moment is Sasquash who won most recently in grade A6 over 380 metres. He is an interesting character who started in bottom grade A8 but it has taken him only seven races to win in three grades purely as a result of his early speed. Last week saw him nearly win an A5 having led from trap to line to be beaten in literally the last stride.

This is a dog that has recorded sectional times of 3.47 seconds which is the sort of time more applicable to A1 grade sectionals so it is inconceivable that he will not win in his current grade soon.

Over the longer six-bend distance of 540 metres, keep an eye open for newcomer Fernhill Fury who impressed with his sectional of 12.87 seconds on his way to winning in grade S3 at the weekend.

This was only the dog’s fourth race here and having performed well over 380 metres winning twice and finishing second on the other occasion he has certainly announced his arrival in style.

This longer trip will on this evidence suit him better and that sort of sectional time will definitely lead to more wins.